Are you tired of losing business to your local competition? Or maybe you’re in desperate need of some eyes on your content. Perhaps you’re even one of the 46% of small businesses that still doesn’t have a website. Here are the SEO tips to help you dominate your local market:-
Local SEO can help with all of these issues and so much more!
Ready to find out how to get started? Keep reading to learn about 10 local SEO tips that can help you dominate the search results.
Table of Contents
1. Start With an Audit
One of the toughest things about reworking your marketing strategy is knowing where to begin. To contextualize your business’s standing, you’ll want to conduct an audit.
Gather metrics on your current performance from any and all platforms. This includes info on your current search ranking, web traffic, and what devices the majority of your traffic comes from.
Alternatively, you can always partner with local SEO services to perform the audit. This solution is often faster and more thorough. We’ll discuss a bit more about the outsourcing process in our final tip!
2. Revamp Your Website
Your website might look fine. But if it isn’t easy to use and search-friendly, you’ll find yourself falling down the search rankings at a rapid pace.
Google penalizes websites based on their performance. Take some time to click through your site and look for the following:
- Redirects
- Load times
- Broken links or images
- Messy URL structure
Optimizing your website for local search can seem tough, but it’s largely about using common sense. Web crawlers replicate actual users, so the faster and more usable your website is, the better you’ll perform on the SERPs.
3. Create a Google Business Account
Although Google penalizes businesses who don’t keep up with the latest SEO updates, they want to see businesses succeed.
To help, they’ve created Google My Business, a program that allows businesses to fill out a profile for their business and appear in Google’s directory.
All you’ll have to do is provide some basic information about your business, such as its name, your current address, and phone number. This info is called NAP for short, and reflects on the three pieces of information consumers most search for.
You can also add photos of your business, links to your website and social pages, and a calendar of upcoming events!
And did we mention it’s free? Seriously, you have nothing to lose, so sign up when you finish reading this article.
4. Publish Great Content
One of the simplest and most affordable local SEO tools is your blog. If you’re not already doing so, start building a library of content that reflects the information your customers want.
Note that this info is aimed to entertain and inform, not sell.
While you can (and should!) include a call-to-action at the end of each post, as well as links to other content on your website sprinkled throughout your blog post.
5. Focus On Local Keywords
While we’re talking about revamps can content writing, don’t forget to research and focus on using local keywords.
This isn’t always as simple as researching the top keywords, then adding your location to them. Instead, you’ll want to follow the basic structure of localized keywords.
Start with a keyword modifier, like ‘organic’ or ‘family-owned.’ Then, add the key phrase in the middle, followed by your location.
So if a marketing firm from New York wanted to generate some local buzz, they’d want to use keywords like ‘small-business SEO services New York’ for example.
6. Think About How People Search
As you start publishing more content and reworking your existing marketing materials, take into account how people tend to interact with search engines.
The overwhelming majority of search traffic now comes from mobile devices, for example. Likewise, a good chunk of those mobile searches involves voice search.
As such, you’ll need to tailor your copy to account for these trends.
Work in your keywords and phrases in a way that sounds natural. A great way to test this out is to reread your content aloud. Could you see yourself speaking those keywords aloud?
7. Optimize Your Site Data
Earlier we talked a bit about how important it is to make sure your website runs well. And while that’s a great start, you’ll need to do some work under the hood, too.
Don’t worry, though, it isn’t too technical and it’s something every local SEO expert would recommend.
For example, you can use schema markup in conjunction with rich snippets so blurbs from your website pop up when a would-be customer searches for a local business.
You can also optimize your images by tagging them with local keywords.
8. Strive to Generate Reviews
Consumer trust matters now more than ever. Research suggests that 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.
Seeing a ton of positive reviews can lead to more business, so do everything in your power to facilitate positive reviews whenever possible.
But we know what you’re thinking — what about negative reviews?
Yes, those matter, too. While a negative review can hurt your pride, take it all in stride. Address the upset customer and offer to solve the problem offline.
Though not every situation is salvageable, the right attitude can allow you to turn a negative review into a positive experience.
9. Keep Your Web Presence Cohesive
Business owners have a lot to juggle between content creation, social media, reputation management, and day-to-day business operations. But don’t get so caught up in the details that you forget to keep your info consistent across each platform.
Whenever your business undergoes a change, such as a move or a shift in business hours, make sure this information is adjusted accordingly on all channels.
10. Consider Outsourcing
We’ve given you a lot to think about today. So much so that you might feel overwhelmed.
If nothing else, know that there’s nothing wrong with hiring a local SEO company to help out. Local SEO solutions can take the marketing workload off of your plate so you can better focus on your business.
Plus, local SEO services have access to resources that you might not, like search tools and content management software.
Stand Out in Your Market With These Local SEO Tips
Local SEO is only going to become more important in the coming years. Make sure your business is prepared to take on the competition by implementing these 10 local SEO tips!
And remember, SEO is always changing. To make sure you always know about the latest adjustments, check out the rest of our blog.
